Perhaps not surprisingly, three of the five panelists (Wolfe, Sleight, Burnham) included Kim Stanley Robinson’s landmark Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars; 1992-1996) on his or her list of “20 Essential Science Fiction Books of the Past 20 Years.”

Just how highly regarded is Robinson’s trilogy? In commenting on Red Mars back in 1992, Arthur C. Clarke called it “A staggering book ... The best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written ... It should be required reading for the colonists of the next century.”

"I'm an optimist. I discard all such dark tomorrows. I have faith in man as God and God as man; I believe we'll be immortal, seed the stars and live forever in the flesh of our children. That's my job as a writer -- to show man his basic goodness, to dramatize his struggle up and away from this planet." -- RB